


Dream Me a New World, and You're Heart to Hold

by gansey_is_our_king



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Boys Kissing, CDTH spoilers, Call Down the Hawk Spoilers, Fluff, Lindenmere, M/M, Ronan Lynch Loves Adam Parrish, Technically takes place before Call Down the Hawk, magic trees, mostly just fluff, nothing too serious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21827728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gansey_is_our_king/pseuds/gansey_is_our_king
Summary: “This is it,” he said, the words unnecessary. Adam had already stopped, still holding his hand, and on his other side Opal and Chainsaw were both waiting at the edge of the trees too, all four of them uncertain.Lindenmere.Ronan knew this was one of the best things he had ever dreamt.He knew it like he knew he loved Adam Parrish: inexplicably, indisputably.** Gift for Pynch Secret Santa 2019 on Tumblr **
Relationships: Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 6
Kudos: 84
Collections: Pynch Secret Santa 2019





	Dream Me a New World, and You're Heart to Hold

**Author's Note:**

> Secret Santa gift for lgbthenry for the Pynch Secret Santa 2019 @pynchpromptweek on Tumblr.  
> Hope you enjoy! There is fluff. There is kissing. There are Call Down the Hawk spoilers. Adam and Ronan are cute.

Adam Parrish was asleep.

This was more uncommon than one might expect at one AM on a sweaty Tuesday night in late August, but Adam Parrish only slept when his demanding schedule allowed it. He had just finished his last ever shift at the Henrietta factory, preceded by his last ever shift at Boyd’s garage. There was a Harvard acceptance letter stuck proudly to the fridge at The Barns with his name on it, and before work that day he had left the keys to his old apartment above St. Agnes church with Mrs. Ramirez.

Summer was winding away from them.

The real world lurked just around the corner, unfamiliar, uncertain.

Ronan could hardly believe that Adam had agreed to move himself and his admittedly limited number of possessions to the Barns for the next three days. Three days was barely any time at all, not compared to the last intense year, not compared to his idyllic summer, but Ronan was determined to make it count.

This sleepy one AM excursion was part of his plan, but Ronan tried not to let that thought distracted him as the BMW left Henrietta, Virginia behind in the rear-view mirror. He loved driving, especially at night, especially when he got far enough away from civilization that there were no traffic lights or stop signs and he could crush his gas pedal into the floor. But it was hard to pay attention to that stretch of blank, black road when the boy Ronan loved more than anything had completely zonked out in the passenger seat. And it was even harder to pay attention to that stretch of blank, black road when they were on their way to visit a forest Ronan had dreamed right out of his head. 

Opal snuffled petulantly in the back seat she had been forced to share with Chainsaw.

The dislike was mutual.

Ronan had lured Opal easily inside the BMW with the promise of seeing Adam after he finished work, but Chainsaw had to be tricked into joining her with scraps of trash from the long barn. This was a treat Ronan preferred to use only under dire circumstances, and Chainsaw was smart enough to know it. His dream creatures would normally have picked a fight with each other by now, the long drive in the dark and disagreeably close quarters conspiring to make this a miserable excursion.

Instead they were strangely quiet. 

Ronan had not said anything to them about where they were going. Possibly they could sense the intended destination because they were also made of dreams. Possibly they could sense the intended destination because they were also _his_ dreams. Ronan was still trying to understand all the intricacies of his strange and unholy ability… curse… gift?

Most days he thought he would never figure it out.

As the BMW sped (literally) on and Henrietta tucked itself away behind a line of trees, the mountains that appeared distant and blue if you were looking at them through the windows of Monmouth Manufacturing twisted the road into a narrow gravel track.

Ronan had manifested his first dream forest by accident, and therefore in a less than secure location. He had been determined to do a better job of it this time, and so he marked his territory out in advance, and while it was still on the Ley Line (he was sure it had to be on the Ley Line to operate as a proper dream space), he had carefully selected a place already hidden well by thick trees and rolling hills and jutting fissures. It was a wilder place, which fit well with this wilder dream.

He knew he was getting close even though the dark rendered the trees around him as foreign skeletons marching silently along the road. Ronan pulled off and parked the BMW near a fire trail, the barb wire fence that had once blocked the entrance to it sagging underneath a fallen tree. The bark was charred black from a lightning strike, and glittered beetle-like in the harsh beam of his headlights as Ronan cut the engine off.

The interior of the car lit up in a soft yellow glow.

“Parrish,” Ronan said. “Adam.”

Adam twitched, his mouth parted slightly, but did not open his eyes.

Ronan gently shook his shoulder. “Adam,” he said again, and this time Adam came awake suddenly, startled. He had been slumped over against the passenger door, his cheek and hearing ear smashed to the window, warm breath fogging the glass near his mouth. The top half of his work coveralls were rolled down and tied around his waist, a sliver of bare skin exposed between them and a soft black shirt that had once belonged to Ronan. His dusty hair was the kind of messy it got from working under cars all day, and more than anything Ronan wanted to run his fingers through it.

He could.

He did.

His heart was pounding with the electrifying thought that this was finally _allowed_.

He had spent almost a year telling himself that over and over, but it was still hard to believe sometimes, that Adam was really sitting in his car at one in the morning, his eyelids shuttered as Ronan scraped nails lightly down the back of his neck, that Adam was really reaching up one boyish hand to grip his wrist, pressing his lips to the pale skin between the leather bands Ronan wore in a kiss that lit his heart on fire.

“Are we there yet?” Adam mumbled around a classic shithead grin. He had undeniably learned it from Ronan.

“Sleep okay?” Ronan shot back with his own smirk.

Adam just yawned and stretched slowly in the passenger seat. The strip of visible skin at his waist expanded by a few tantalizing inches as his shirt hitched up. Ronan distracted himself by twisting around to check in the back where Opal and Chainsaw were sulkily ignoring one another. By the time he turned to Adam again the other boy was blinking out the passenger window, the night silky and black all around them.

“You ready for this?” Ronan said, all casual.

“Yeah,” Adam replied at once, all casual. He unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed open the door. Ronan felt the cold air slip in to raise goosebumps all the way up his bare arms. They got out, and Ronan went around to open the back door. Chainsaw flapped out past him immediately, any reservations she might have about their proximity to a new dream space eclipsed by her dislike for Opal.

Ronan watched her land gratefully in a nearby tree.

Opal did not get out of the car. “Brat,” he said. “Are you coming or what?”

She just peered suspiciously around him at the trees, gnawing on a stick Ronan had failed to confiscate earlier like it was a candy bar. Adam materialized next to him, and held out his hand. “Come on,” he said to Opal, and his voice was the kind of soft that made Ronan feel like he was going to self-immolate at any second, because Adam could definitely be a shithead, but most of the time he was absolutely perfect.

Opal slid out of the car and took his hand. “Kerah,” she whined.

“What did I tell you?” Ronan snapped. “Stop calling me that.”

Opal sniffed and tugged on Adam’s hand until he silently agreed to pick her up. She clung tightly to his neck and wrapped her strange animal legs around his waist, her face pressed to his neck in a spiteful display of affection. Chainsaw could not stand this. She croaked and flapped down at once to Ronan, her wing feathers brushing against his ear in solidarity when she came to land on his shoulder, talons clawing through his thin shirt. She tilted her head towards Opal, beak parted in false contempt while jealousy kept her neck feathers ruffled. 

He could not really blame her for it.

He also wanted to be held constantly and tenderly by Adam Parrish.

“You ready?” Ronan said again.

He was not sure that he was.

Adam fished his new phone out of a pocket in his coveralls. “Yes.”

Ronan got out his phone too, and they both switched on the flash light function in order to illuminate a short path that led to the collapsed fence. Ronan stepped down on the barb wire, holding it out of the way with his boot while Adam set Opal down gently on the other side and followed her over less elegantly. He turned and extended his hand to Ronan, his eyes and expression soft in the pale light from his phone, currently directed to the side. Ronan reached out to meet him, their palms sliding together, fingers threaded easily together, all of it familiar. 

Adam tugged.

The barbwire sprung back up as Ronan stepped off of it and right into Adam. Chainsaw cawed loudly at the sudden proximity and took off again, circling above their heads.

“Are you cold?” Adam whispered. “I can feel you shaking.” 

Ronan shook his head.

Adam kissed his neck. Then he kissed his mouth.

It woke Ronan up a little. The memory of feeling tingled in his cold fingers and toes.

“Where do we go?” Adam said.

Across the field. Through a patch of brush and burrs that clutched at their clothes as they waded by. Underneath another fallen tree trunk, this one smelling of rotted wood and covered with small brown mushrooms already slick with dew. The dream forest loomed ahead, sudden and dark with shadows. It had a curious and terrible way of eating the light when Ronan tried to direct the beam from his phone between the branches.

“This is it,” he said, the words unnecessary. Adam had already stopped, still holding his hand, and on his other side Opal and Chainsaw were both waiting at the edge of the trees too, all four of them uncertain. 

Lindenmere.

Ronan knew this was one of the best things he had ever dreamt.

He knew it like he knew he loved Adam Parrish: inexplicably, indisputably.

The leaves rustled in a strange breeze that did not quite reach him on the edge of the tree line, the branches creaking, and Ronan could taste the night in his mouth, the cold and the damp. He was overwhelmed with a feeling of whispered truths and impossible secrets, but that was what it was to be Ronan Lynch.

Adam squeezed his hand, his own palm sweaty.

“You okay?” Ronan muttered.

“I think so.” Adam hesitated. “Are we… going in?”

Ronan was.

He knew that Adam would follow him.

He took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The forest had been dark when he stood outside it, all shadow, but the moment Ronan crossed the border his eyes began to sting with the bright burn of a morning sun rise. Adam was blinking too, his other hand raised to shield his face from the unexpected light. Ronan switched off the flash light function on his phone, and returned it gratefully to his pocket. The trees were arranged in patches, rocks jutting out from the soft mossy ground. It was probably around five or six in the morning here, if dream time could be measured the same as real world time, which of course it could not. The leaves were full and green above them. Light slanted through gaps in the trees and splashed across the earth like liquid gold.

“Oh,” Adam said. He let go of Ronan and abruptly sat down.

“Parrish?” Ronan said in alarm. His heart was pounding, but Adam looked… fine. Not like he was going to pass out right away. Not like he was scared or sick. Just like he was feeling a lot of things all at the same time, hands pressed firmly to the ground, fingers curled in the grass and soft dirt. He shut his eyes again, and Ronan was struck with the slightly creepy thought that he could actually see better that way.

“Adam?” he said carefully, and knelt beside him.

Opal and Chainsaw had followed them in. Chainsaw landed on his shoulder again. Opal clung to the hem of his shirt.

“I can feel it,” Adam whispered after a moment. “I can feel the line.”

“Is it the same?” Ronan said.

“No. It feels—” Adam stopped and opened his eyes, but there was no disappointment, just a kind of breathless wonder that Ronan felt himself catching. He grinned at Adam, his body humming with a kind of nervous energy as he searched for his hand in the dirt, and felt the dry heat of skin when Adam fumbled to grip his fingers.

“This is…” he started again, before trailing off.

Opal crept around to place her small hand gently on top of their larger ones.

Chainsaw croaked softly.

“Do you know where you want to go?” Adam said.

Ronan shrugged. Even if he had an idea, he was not sure that it would be possible to get there on the first try. This place was a much stranger creature than Cabeswater had ever been, and he got the feeling that while it trusted him, it would also not hesitate to fuck with his head if the opportunity presented itself.

He stood up. Adam did the same, brushing leaves and grass off his coveralls. 

“Come on,” Ronan said.

They started walking, moving slowly between the trees. It was less like a forest from the inside, and more like a tricky maze. Animals scuttled through the undergrowth, either truly invisible or too fast for Ronan to see. They passed by a trickling stream, and when Adam paused to peer to the bottom Ronan caught the impossible splash of a fish that immediately swam off with the current. Bird song echoed all around them.

Opal had clung to Ronan uneasily at first, but slowly she began to wander, goaded further in her bravery by Chainsaw, who flapped from tree to tree above their heads, never quite flying far enough to be out of sight. Ronan could feel how they both belonged here, and how he belonged here with them.

Adam examined an improbable field of swords, sharp points buried in the ground while the hilts reached up towards the sky. They were growing too close together for Adam to walk between the blades, but he curved his free hand around the nearest pommel. Ronan knew he was reconnecting with the pulse of the ley line, because his back went ramrod straight, and his knuckles burned white.

Then a smile crept across his face. “That makes sense,” he said inexplicably.

“What?” Ronan demanded. 

Adam just shrugged. “Come on. Looks like we have to go around.”

He stopped again to stand at the edge of a dark pool that did not show their reflections back to them. Ronan was simultaneously creeped out and fascinated by the still water. He had half a thought that it was _eating_ all the things it could see, and tried to stand back without being too obvious about it. Adam appeared undeterred. He crouched down curiously on the mushy bank, and for one horrible moment Ronan expected him to plunge his hand right beneath the surface, but instead Adam just hovered his palm a few inches above the water, not quite daring to touch it.

There were strange flowers that piped out even stranger tunes when they walked past, and falling leaves too bright for the season that dissolved into pure light as Ronan watched, and tree roots that slithered away from their feet like a snake.

Whispered truths and impossible secrets: that was what it was to be Ronan Lynch.

Adam reached quietly for his hand again.

Dead leaves crunched beneath their feet as an enormous gnarled tree came into view.

It would have been a place for nightmares in Cabeswater, but in this new forest Ronan thought that nightmares and dreams were probably the same thing. It felt that way. He wondered if he should be scared.

Adam laid his palm against the rough bark, his eyes lifted towards the sky.

“Ronan,” he said. “This place… you really dreamt all this?”

“Yeah.”

“This is amazing.”

“I mean. It looks pretty cool.”

Adam laughed disbelievingly. “Stop that. I was being serious. I just… God. I love you.”

Ronan felt a lump swell in his throat at that. He knew he was blushing.

Adam leaned his back against the tree and slowly pulled him closer. Ronan braced one hand on the rough bark and wrapped his other arm around Adam’s waist. They kissed. They kissed again. Ronan felt his heart, the ocean, catch fire and burn, burn, burn as Adam cupped a hand softly around the back of his neck, pressing fingers into the cords of his neck, as Adam’s tongue prodded inside his mouth and tasted Ronan, as Adam hungrily took him apart.

They stopped kissing when breathing became nonnegotiable.

Adam was blushing too by that point, a shade of pink that looked extremely pretty next to his soft blue eyes and dusty hair. Ronan pressed his face into his neck. He could smell the engine oil and sweat on him, and it was making a mess of his insides. He wondered if his dream forest was sentient enough to know what he was thinking, that he would like to do several unspeakably filthy things to Adam right this moment on the mossy ground, or possibly up against the gnarled tree trunk. 

His fingers curled underneath the hem of the black shirt Adam was wearing, teasing.

“Ronan,” the other boy warned.

Ronan nosed quietly along the shell of his hearing ear, because he knew Adam liked that, and felt the little puff of air that Adam let out. He shivered at the hand that curved back around his neck, the familiar callus on the right index finger a memento of all the times that Adam had scrawled out his essays by hand.

“ _Tamquam_ —” Ronan started.

“— _alter idem_.” Adam leaned back slightly. “Ronan,” he said again. “Do you hear that?”

Ronan felt his pulse pick up anxiously at the way his voice sounded. “Hear what?”

“That sound. Like…” Adam frowned over his shoulder. “Like rain. I think.”

They untangled and looked around. Opal was skulking in the bushes on the other side of the small clearing, and Chainsaw was supervising her from the trees, probably waiting for Opal to do something that would get her in trouble.

“It is rain,” Adam said, taking several steps away from Ronan. “Do you hear it yet?”

“Be careful,” Ronan suggested, but he followed Adam out of the clearing and across the same winding creak they had passed earlier. The trees grew closer together here, morning sunlight breaking through the leaves above them like shards of glass, glimmering and soft. Ronan heard the gentle patter of water falling overhead, the slow drip of it from the tangled branches, and then something touched his cheek, cold and wet. It rolled into the corner of his mouth, and all at once Rona felt an overwhelming sadness wash over him, immediately followed by the kind of happiness that made his heart swell.

It was the rain he had dreamed up and hid shamefully in the long barn all summer.

It smelled a little bit like blood tasted, and also like a car engine sounded, which made no sense.

Ronan heard his own breath catch.

Adam went still beside him.

They stood there in silence and listened to the rain falling all around them, and Ronan let the sadness and the happiness fill up his lungs, and when he let his next breath shudder out it was more like a sob. Adam turned to him and pressed his body up close to Ronan again, arms wrapped around his chest like branches, his fingers and lips sealing the cracks, and it felt like they had already spent the entire night holding each other, but Ronan knew that would never be enough.

He kissed Adam, tasting salt and rain.

“I love you,” he said. “I love you, Adam. _Tamquam_ —”

“— _alter idem_.” Adam held his face in both his hands. “Ronan. I know.”

They swayed in a slow circle between the tree trunks as the rain continued to fall. It might have been a strange kind of dance, private and intimate. Ronan felt the way his pulse raced, his heart burned. Adam Parrish held him tightly until the sun rose all the way and finally punctured through the forest, through the rain, through the sadness and the happiness that was around him and inside him.

Ronan stepped back slowly and checked his watch.

It had stopped working.

He let Adam wipe a finger underneath both his eyes, one at a time, and then Adam showed the tears or the rain there to Ronan before gently taking his hand again. “Time to go home,” he said.

\- fin -

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
> Leave me a comment or kudos if you loved it or liked it or anything. I thrive on your validation :D
> 
> @alliwannadoiswrite on Tumblr


End file.
